High School Sucks
by ErineD24
Summary: Welcome to Gotham Academy, the boarding school with the highest teen superhero concentration on the Eastern seaboard. Only, now I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's take it from the top. AU Rob/Star BB/Rae
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans… blah, blah, blah etc. **

You know how high school sucks? Have you tried attending high school as your secret identity when all you really want to be doing is fighting crime as a superhero? Well, it sucks even more that way. Welcome to Gotham Academy, the boarding school with the highest teenage superhero population on the Eastern seaboard. Only, now I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's take it from the top.

It was the evening before my first day of Sophomore Year at the prestigious Gotham Academy. Bruce had insisted that I take a break from the Robin mantle and attend high school. The press were getting suspicious of my lack of visible enrolment in school anyway.

Naturally, I was angry. I'm not a child and refuse to be treated as such but Bruce insisted, and when Batman himself demands you do something it's probably in your best interest to do it. So here I was, three weeks later, unpacking my case in a private room (courtesy of my billionaire father) and mumbling swearwords under my breath. The room itself I couldn't really complain about. It was a decent size (nothing compared to the rooms at Wayne Manor, but that was to be expected) with a bed in the corner, a desk, a nice closet and a pretty decent view of the courtyard. Being paranoia personified I hooked a couple bugs up, just two cameras – one in the corner facing the door and the other facing the window. It couldn't hurt to be safe. After bugging my own room I pulled out my laptop and wireless Internet. Having hooked everything up I began initiating the code to establish a secure connection with the Bat cave. If something big was happening in Gotham, Robin was going to be there, high school be damned. I found a secure place to hide my Robin uniform, just in case I should need it in an emergency. Satisfied with my work I figured I'd brave the common room of my boarding house and meet my fellow classmates.

Just after locking up my room (paranoia personified) I turned to face the hallway, only to be knocked backwards by a distinctly green blur.

"Oh dude, I'm so sorry, didn't see you there!"

The boy speaking stood up and offered me his hand.

"Garfield. Garfield Logan. Pleased to meet you," the boy said. I was staggered by his odd appearance. The boy was wearing the school uniform, only it appeared to be a size too large for him and it hung off his shoulders. His hair was blond with a very distinctive line of green running through it. I wondered idly what would possess someone to dye his hair like that. The kid was short. It's rare that I meet a guy over the age of 13 who is shorter than me and it was a good feeling. I noticed that he wore a grey ring on his index finger. It took me a moment to realise that I'd been standing silently scrutinising him.

"Oh right, yeah," I stammered, a good start, "I'm Richard. People call me Dick."

I watched Garfield suppress a smirk.

"Dude," he started, "I think we're going to get on really well."

"Thanks?"

Garfield turned around and shouted down the hallway.

"Victor! Vic, come here. I've met a guy with a name more awkward than me! I win!"

I buried my face in my hands; this was so not where I wanted to be right now. Not when there were streets to patrol and criminals to detain. Being mocked by a short teenager named Garfield with green dye in his hair was so not on my agenda. My moping was interrupted by the sound of pounding footsteps and I looked up.

"Now this I gotta see, grass stain," said a sceptical and booming voice. Now this guy was a giant. Looking like a line-backer he had to have been at least 6"5 with broad shoulders and dark skin. Even being the hero I was, this guy was intimidating. He came up and stood beside Garfield.

"So, what's your name?" He asked after looking me up and down.

I narrowed my eyes, "I'm Dick."

The guy actually had the audacity to laugh. At me, Robin – The Boy Wonder. The guy was laughing. Man, I wanted to kick his ass.

"Damn Gar. And you thought you had it bad," he guy guffawed and wiped his eyes. Once he was finished laughing he stood up and offered me his hand. I noticed at once that he was wearing a ring similar to Garfield's, also on his index finger. Odd.

"I'm Victor Stone." I grunted and accepted his hand, praying for this socially awkward encounter to end and silently cursing Bruce.

"Well, seeing as you're new, Vic and I are going to be your guides to Gotham Academy. We'll make sure you've got everything you need for this place," Garfield announced, dragging me in the direction of what I assumed was the common room.

* * *

><p>I had to admit, the boy's common room actually wasn't that bad, a kitchenette stood off to the side, and the main room itself was decent. Several sofas were dotted around a central TV hooked up to a game station and a pool table sat in the corner.<p>

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Victor asked, indicating to the room in front of them.

"It's decent," I replied, after all, I had a 'spoilt rich kid' persona to keep up.

"Whatever dude, I'm getting myself some grub. Vic, go claim our couch."

"Sure thing. You're coming with me Spikey."

I got the impression that this Victor guy and I weren't going to get on the most smoothly.

"It's Dick. Not Spikey."

"I'm sorry man, but there is like no way you're getting me to call you that… It ain't right."

Before I could do something really stupid, like punch the guy, Garfield returned with a blob of what could only be described as white goo on a plate.

"Oh G, you've got to be kidding. That looks disgusting. Keep that the hell away from me," Victor held his hands up in front of his face and scooted away from Garfield.

"Its just Tofu. Its full of soy-beany goodness."

"I'm with Victor, that looks horrible," I added.

"Suit yourselves," Garfield commented through a mouthful of food, "So this is the common room. The girls are allowed in here, but not in the rooms and stuff, because… well, you know. The food in the kitchen is a free-for-all system, but if you really want something you can put your name on it and hope that's enough to deter the upperclassmen. Dinner is at 7. Get there promptly or you'll miss out on the good stuff. Breakfast is at 8, but you can always grab something from the fridge instead. The seniors normally run the TV, but occasionally you can get a request in. Also, Pool is a matter of pride here; so don't do something stupid like challenge someone you don't know to a game. If you get your ass kicked, your rep is as good as gone. I think that's about it. Vic, did I miss anything?"

"Light's out is 10:30 for sophomores," Victor added.

"Yeah, that."

"Tomorrow will probably be orientation and stuff in the morning, so don't sweat it too much. Do ya know what you're taking?"

Time for me to show off, "I'm taking 12th grade trig, College Calculus, AP English language arts, Advanced physics, Russian and WHAP."

"So you're a geek, that's cool. Victor here is a geek too. Great with all the tech stuff, he is."

Oh, I see. A challenger appears. Well, I'd like to see Victor Stone beat Dick Grayson at the 'tech stuff'. That'd be hilarious. I've been handling the world's most advanced technology since I was nine. I'd been programming and updating the Bat computer regularly since I was 12 and I was proud of it. I would enjoy showing him up. My uncontrollable competitive streak reared its ugly head.

"Oh really?" I asked, "I know a thing or two about computers myself."

"My dad works at S.T.A.R. Labs, I help him out from time to time."

Garfield and Victor smirked, as if they were in on some kind of joke. Right.

"I know a lot about their new technology and I've got a bit of a flare for computing in general," again Victor smirked as if he had just made a good joke.

"I've done some work with WayneTech," I refused to be shown up by this guy. I figured I might as well show off my connections if he was going to show off his, "My Dad owns Wayne Enterprises and he lets me do some of the programming work."

The look on Victor and Garfield's faces was priceless.

"Duuude-" Garfield breathed.

"You're Dick Grayson? As in… _The_ Dick Grayson? Adopted son of billionaire Bruce Wayne, _Dick Grayson_?"

"The very same," I replied smugly.

"Dude." Garfield said again, "You're like… famous."

I nodded, enjoying their reactions.

"Well, all right!" Victor's voice boomed.

"Huh," Garfield muttered, "I'm friends with a famous person."

The clock on the wall ticked past 7 o'clock and everyone in the room began moving towards the door very suddenly.

"Oh man," Victor exclaimed, "We're going to be late for dinner. We do not want to be late for dinner. Especially on the first night back."

Garfield jumped up and launched himself over the back of the couch, heading for the door. I followed suit, but made sure to land slightly awkwardly so as not to appear too agile. It wouldn't do to act like Robin in this situation.

"No fair!" Victor shouted after us, "Ya'll know if I tried that, I'd break the sofa."

He was forced to take the long way around, intimidating people in his way until he was walking next to us again.

"Oh, Dick, we'll have to introduce to you Rachel at dinner," Garfield commented, "She's a good friend of ours."

"And Gar here has a huge crush on her," Victor added, "It's so great, she couldn't give a damn about him and he fawns over her all the time."

"Dude, shut up," thoroughly embarrassed, Garfield shoved Victors shoulder ineffectually.

"We'll introduce you to Kori too. She's a transfer student. She's very… excitable."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Oh, you'll see," Victor smirked as we entered the dinner hall.

Well, hell. That was cryptic.

**A/N: So! There it is: the beginning to my first full story. **

**Let me know what you thought in a review. **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

**A/N: I'm sorry for the slight delay. I started this story at a really bad time (finals, coursework and other stressful things) and have been trying to write around work and school. I'm on vacation now, so things should settle down and updates should become regular. **

The lunch hall was terrifying. A mass of shouting teenagers and food trays that stretched on as far as I could see. Granted, that wasn't very far given that I was shorter than almost everyone in the room, but that's not the point. I followed Garfield and Victor, as they seemed to know what they were doing. I absently noted how lucky it was that I'd found them.

"Rae!" I heard Victor call.

A petite girl with very pale skin and jet-black hair cut into an even bob turned her head to look at us. She held in her hand an e-Book reader(1) and had the same grey ring as I'd noticed on Gar and Victor on her index finger. I began to think that maybe it was a 'friendship ring' of some sort. Ordinary teenagers are weird like that.

"Don't call me that," she deadpanned.

I was momentarily shocked, for someone so small she appeared very intimidating. Garfield tugged awkwardly on the sleeves of his over-sized uniform, his crush on Rachel pretty obvious at this point as a result of all the fidgeting he was doing.

"Fine. _Rachel_," Victor emphasised her name, "this is our friend Richard. He's new here."

"You don't say," Rachel quipped sarcastically, turning towards me.

"Rachel Roth," she didn't move to shake my hand, instead gripping her e-Book to her chest defensively.

"Call me Dick," I responded, somewhat disconcerted by the girl's standoffish nature.

She nodded in response and turned back to her book. Not one for small talk, clearly. The dinner queue moved forward and everyone picked up a try so I followed suit. Rachel had her book laying on the try and read it as we approached the food counter. I wondered if this behaviour was entirely normal, but Garfield and Victor didn't seem phased, so maybe this wasn't odd. It had been a long time since I'd been around kids my age – maybe this was just how they acted.

"Rachel," Victor asked pulling the quiet girl away from her book.

"What?"

"Where's Kori?"

"She said something about going to get mustard. I'm sure she'll be joining us shortly."

Victor nodded knowingly and Rachel turned back to her book, leaving me thoroughly confused. Mustard? We collected our food and turned towards the cafeteria. Garfield set off for a table in the corner and everyone followed. I had just sat down when I looked up and into the most startlingly green set of eyes I'd ever seen.

"Greetings!" a feminine voice chirped.

"Um… er… hi," I finally managed. Always a charmer, me.

"Friends," the girl said turning to the rest of the table, "Who is this?"

"Kori, this is Dick. He's a new friend of ours."

"Most glorious!" I had composed myself enough now to notice that the girl speaking was stunning. She had a deep tan, and a model-like stature. She carried herself with the quiet grace that I assumed royalty possessed. Her hair, which was a bright shade of ginger cascaded down her back and ended just beneath her shoulder blades. She, also, was wearing the same ring as her friends. Had I stumbled into some sort of teen cult?

"It is excellent to make your acquaintance, new friend Dick," Kori said, plopping down beside me. Her choice of meal was… interesting, to say the least. Her glass held a thick yellow liquid that I recognised as mustard and her plate was heaped high with combinations of food that did not belong.

"You're not from around here are you?" I said. I might have sounded a bit intrusive, but I was curious – that's what being raised by the world's greatest detective gets you, I suppose.

"That is correct," she tilted her head to the side and paused, "I am from… Russia(2)."

"Oh really?" I responded, genuinely intrigued.

She nodded.

"Где в России?" I asked, relishing the chance to show off my Russian and practice with a native speaker.

Kori looked alarmed for a moment before doing something I really hadn't seen coming. She leaned in and very quickly kissed me. I was floored. She pulled away and continued the conversation as if nothing odd had just happened.

"Я из Москвы," she said, "Я передачу студент из московской школы Central High."

I was too shocked to respond. Instead I looked around the table to see if anyone else was reacting the way I had. Rachel appeared completely unfazed but understanding, which struck me as really odd. Garfield and Victor's reactions were slightly more ordinary, they both looked as if they were trying to restrain themselves from laughing. I coughed and spluttered and fell off of my chair. Garfield and Victor burst out laughing, Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to her book. God, I hated other people.

Kori leant over the edge of her chair and peered down at me, her eyes shinning with concern. "Oh, friend Dick, you are not hurt are you?"

I smiled up at her (I couldn't help it, her personality seemed to be infectious) and nodded, dusting my trousers off as I placed myself down on my seat again. Garfield and Victor were still sniggering silently in their seats, hunched over by the force of their own laughter. Nice, supportive friends I've got.

Finally, Garfield straightened himself up and coughed dramatically. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on dude, that was priceless. You totally just fell on your ass."

"Well, excuse me," I responded, getting a little defensive, "I was taken by surprise." I shot a furtive glance at Kori. She didn't seem affected in the slightest by our kiss. Sigh, maybe I'd just have to drop matters and move on. Remind me to kill Bruce later, for making me enter this mad house.

"Did you say which was your homeroom?" Victor asked, and I silently thanked the heavens for the change of topic.

"Um…I've got 10A with Mrs Jennings."

"Rachel," Garfield said, "Isn't that the same class as you?"

"How is it," Rachel began in her not unpleasant monotone, "that you remember the most trivial of things and yet insist on failing half of your classes?"

Ouch. Victor was not kidding when he had said that Rachel didn't care for Garfield. He just smiled however, one uneven tooth poking out from among the rest.

"Because I'm great like that."

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to her tray and waiting book. Can you say ice princess? I began to realize that I must have fallen in with the group of "outcasts" as far as high school standards went. They certainly seemed a motley crew. Not that I had a problem with it, but I certainly hadn't seen it coming. One expects the famous son of a billionaire to fall in with the more popular kids as a general rule.

"Which homeroom do you guys have?" I asked, making conversation with the guys. Kori was pretty intensely involved with her food at this point; shoveling massive forkfuls into her mouth and Rachel was back to being focused on her book.

We maintained a pretty normal conversation from that point. Kori and Rachel occasionally weighing in on something as the guys explained to me which teachers were good, strict or nice. I noted the warning about a nasty PE teacher and resolved to blow everyone away, just because I could, in my 7th period PE lesson the next day. I discovered that I shared College Calculus with Victor, World History AP with Kori, AP English Lang Arts with Rachel and PE with Garfield. As it turned out, Rachel and Victor were pretty good at everything while Garfield was the best in the grade at biology (I noticed at this point the same "in on a joke" smile as when Victor shared that he was good with computers, but didn't ask about it) and that Kori was great at astronomy (queue another "in on a joke" smile that I didn't ask about) and a genius when it came to mathematics and engineering. By the end of dinner I felt like I had found a group where I pretty much fit in.

I remained somewhat confused by the similar metal rings worn by the group, not to mention Kori's incredibly random act of kissing me, and the odd "in on a joke" looks that were occasionally passed around but chalked it up to my lack of contact with teenagers my age besides Batgirl. As I returned to my room I quickly scanned the footage on my bugs and sent a brief message to Batman: "_The school you've sent me to is fine. Still angry with you. –R_". I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed, preparing myself for my first day of high school.

**A/N Sorry, I couldn't resist the kiss between Kori and Dick. Just incase you didn't get that; she kissed him to learn Russian. She didn't expect him to know it when she used it as a cover story, but when he did; she needed to be able to speak it to keep up the act. It's a throwback to the first episode of Teen Titans. I figured that encounter was necessary to set the tone for the rest of their friendship and wanted to put it in somewhere. **

**Also, the conversation read, "Where in Russia?" "I'm from Moscow." "I'm a transfer student from Moscow Central High" The Russian comes from my own knowledge with a double check using Google Translate. If I massively butchered it, let me know and I'm sorry in advance. **

**I know Raven likes to read massive tomes, but it wouldn't do for her to carry those around school, especially if she wanted to pass as somewhat normal so instead she uses an e-Reader (in my head) because that way the book she reads can be as huge and/or ancient as she wants without it presenting a problem. **

**I took Russian for a year and a half and when I heard Starfire speaking angry Tamaranian in the first episode of Teen Titans I was shocked at how Russian it sounded, so that's Kori's cover story now…**

**Tell me what you thought in a review :3**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I suck and I know. I've written out the whole plot for this by chapter and I'm writing it instead of studying for exams. I should update A LOT MORE now. I love you if you're still there. **

**I don't own teen titans**

* * *

><p>Waking up in a bed that wasn't my own was a strange feeling. The fighter instinct had me up and in a crouch in the corner of my room an hour before my alarm was set to go off. When the adrenaline coursing through my veins subsided enough for me to realize my blunder, I stood up and laughed at my own paranoia. Knowing I wouldn't get back to sleep at this hour, I decided I might as well take advantage of the extra time.<p>

Life under the Bat taught me never to pass up an opportunity to train, so that is what I did. While training with Batman normally focused on combat techniques, I figured I'd work more on acrobatics this morning. I tumbled and back flipped on the limited floor space until I felt warmed up – at which point, I began launching myself off of the dresser, completing as many areal summersaults and flips as I could before landing on the carpeted floor. It wasn't ideal, but I worked with what I had. When I grew bored of training and it grew light enough to justify being awake, I decided it was time for a shower.

I made my way through empty hallways to the communal bathroom, looking forward to having some privacy when I heard voices inside.

"C'mon BB, don't be stupid – put the ring back on" came the unmistakable voice of Victor.

"Dude, no one is awake and I haven't stretched my legs in ages," a voice a recognized as Gar responded.

There was a disapproving mumbling sound made by Vic followed by a growl, then a hiss, and lastly the sound of two things impacting and porcelain breaking.

"Okay, Gar that's enough. Ring on. You're breaking stuff."

There was another growl followed by Gar saying, "Oh man, didn't mean to do that. Can you fix it before anyone gets up?"

At this point, my curiosity was killing me and I marched into the bathroom to see Gar, already dressed in school uniform, looking on as Vic, still in pjs, knelt under one of the sinks piecing it together with super glue. I briefly wondered how or why he had been prepared with super glue before asking the guys what had happened.

Garfield reached a hand up and scratched the back of his head looking shifty before he answered, "Um… you see…," he paused, "Vic here leant on the sink and it broke." He looked proud of himself when he finished.

"Right," I answered skeptically, "I'm just going to go…" I pointed at the shower stalls.

"Okay dude, see you later."

I walked into a shower stall and sat down my things, leaning against the door to hear the rest of their conversation.

"That should hold," Vic said, "There really isn't enough room for you here. I don't know why they insist on putting us in a place like this."

"Short notice?" Gar replied, but it sounded more like a question than anything else, "Maybe they'll move us somewhere better soon."

"I hope so, Rae keeps breaking stuff too, and Kori hasn't been able to up almost a week."

"Want to talk about this somewhere else?" Gar asked, probably remembering me.

There was the sound of footsteps, the bathroom door opening, more footsteps and then the sound of the bathroom door closing. I thought about how weird their conversation was as I showered. Who were _they_? What had Gar and Vic been doing before I came in? What did any of that have to do with the rings? What was this about Kori getting up? And why did Rae keep breaking things like Gar? Unfortunately, my shower did not hold the answers to these questions and by the time I was dressed, I realized I was starving from the morning's acrobatics.

Breakfast was an affair similar to dinner, with hundreds of students all scrambling around for food. Gar and Vic lead me to the same table as we'd eaten at the night before where the girls were already sitting. Fortunately, Rachel seemed a little more welcoming in the morning than she had been the previous night. She was still quiet though; even I seemed chatty in comparison. Kori was very passionate about starting school and I have to admit, her joy was infectious. I found myself smiling on the way to English with Rachel.

"You like her," she observed after we had set off in amicable silence.

I spluttered something unintelligible at her and stopped in my tracks.

"Its okay," she reassured, "I won't tell."

"How do you…?" I managed to get out and started to walk again.

"It radiates off you."

After this observation, we slipped into silence again. Surprisingly, silence with Rachel wasn't as awkward as I had imagined it would be. It wasn't a silence that needed to be filled with words and I gathered Rachel only spoke when she had something worth saying, which I didn't mind. Neither of us was particularly verbose, but I liked the comradeship we seemed to be forming.

Rachel impressed me in English class, she only spoke once, when called upon by the teacher, but her response to the piece we were studying was sensitive and well thought out. There was no doubt that she was smart.

At the bell, she pointed me to the Language labs where I next had Russian. Russian passed uneventfully – though the teacher made a mistake in the syntax of a particular sentence and I couldn't resist pointing it out. Trigonometry was similarly uneventful and I finished the work within 10 minutes of it being set – so I sat at the back and checked local crime reports on my smart phone. There had been a break in at Gotham Central bank at the same time as Killer Croc tried to gain control of Gotham's water supply facility. Batman had only been able to detain Killer Croc and the bank robber had gotten away without reprimand. I was quite annoyed by this - if Batman had let me stay with him in Gotham that wouldn't have been able to happen. I shot off a whiney PM to the Batcomputer asking if Batman felt like bringing me back into Gotham City to work with him during the week.

Lunch was interesting; with the guys managing to goad me into trying some of Kori's mustard coated pickles. They weren't terrible, but the hot sauce and olive bread was one step too far and I had to pass it up. World History with Kori, which I was quite looking forward to, followed lunch. The walk with Kori was unlike the one with Rachel. Kori was easy to talk to and was enthusiastic about everything. Did not I find the food here wonderful? Was not the hot water glorious? Did I find physics fascinating? Had I ever flown in a spacecraft? Was not the history of this planet captivating? She never used contractions or slang I noticed and she embraced everything like it was brand new to her. In History we were paired together and the first module we studied would be Ancient Egypt. As with most things, Kori was looking forward to it.

Calculus with Victor turned into a competition as to who could work the fastest and the most accurately. You would think that kid had a computer in his head with the way he added up some of the sums. Advanced Physics was more difficult for me than anything else I was taking. That's not to say I didn't get it, but I was working on par with the rest of the class – which was something I wasn't used to. Call me full of myself if you like, but I've been tutored by some of the brightest minds in the country – not to mention Bruce himself. I was caught off guard by not being the best.

PE was my last lesson of the day, and I was glad to be getting my first day over with. School, as it turned out was quite exhausting. Its no fighting crime, but it does take a lot of effort. Walking to the gym I discovered that my PE class directly followed the one Kori and Rachel were in. They emerged from the gym with another guy who I didn't know. Kori was wearing _very _short shorts and a tight white t-shirt. I won't lie; I was looking. I was used to seeing Babs in clothes like that for training, but with Kori it was different. I couldn't look away. Which is probably why I noticed when Kori started to trip over. She had been walking backwards in front of Rachel and their friend and her shoelace had become untied. Kori stepped backwards and laughed as her feet got caught on each other. As she tumbled backwards, I ran forward, laying my arms out for her to fall into. She fell slower than I expected, almost seeming to catch in the air before dropping into my arms.

When I caught her she looked mildly alarmed. She stood quickly and backed away slightly. I immediately felt like an idiot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to get hurt."

"No, no," she said looking less panicked, "You did nothing wrong. It is just… Where I am from, people do not touch me."

"Russia?" I asked confused.

She laughed nervously and turned away, answering so quickly that all of her words seemed to merge into one, "Myfamilyismoststrangeand Iamcsorryformybehaviour. ImustgonoworIwillbe late. ByeDick!"

Garfield, for his size, proved very capable in sport. I enjoyed myself while curbing my strength and speed. All in all, it hadn't been a bad day at all. For the first time in a long time, I felt included in a group of kids my own age. It was as disconcerting as it was pleasant.

After dinner, Gar, Vic and I managed to snatch control of the video game console for an hour and conducted a racing tournament. The guys had procured snacks from somewhere and I lost myself in being a teenager. Victor and I bullied Gar about his crush on Rae, that night he had even pulled out a chair for her at dinner and she hadn't batted an eye. I was enjoying it until they turned it around and started bullying me about Kori. As it turned out, Victor had seen our escapade in the hall outside the gym and wasn't going to let me forget it. I was interested to learn that apparently Victor had a girl in his computing class who he liked named Sarah. He denied everything, of course.

I went to bed that night content, almost forgetting about the strange happenings in the bathroom this morning. It was nice being a student.

That, of course, is not to say that I wouldn't run back to protect Gotham City at the drop of a hat.

**A/N: So... next chapter you should see the plot emerging. Sorry if there has been too much fluff for your liking :S**

**Review?**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: An update? Reasonably timed? I know – I'm in shock too. **

Chapter 4

This time I was woken by an incoming call to my laptop. The bat signal was flashing on the screen, illuminating my room. I rolled out of bed and onto the floor, snatched my mask from under the bed and ran my hands through my hair, fluffing it suitably. I slid into my chair, secured my mask and hit the "accept call" button.

"Batman," I said by way of greeting.

"There's evidence that yesterday's robbery at Gotham Central Bank was unusual. Money wasn't what the thief wanted. They broke into one of Wayne Tech's vaults and took blueprints. They left the cash and other valuables in the same vault completely untouched."

"What was it they took?" It wasn't unusual for Wayne Enterprises to come under attack from villains, as one of Gotham's largest and most influential companies, it was only a coincidence that Batman himself was the owner. Wayne Tech itself is the largest subdivision of the Wayne Enterprises conglomerate.

"Blueprints for the failed Nanobots project. The project failed about 3 months ago and research was moved by government grant to S.T.A.R. Labs, where further research is currently taking place on the project."

"What do the nanobots do?"

"The nanobot blueprints stolen effectively did nothing. They were functioning, but only as drones. The project was attempting to create nanobots that could repair lesions on the brains of stroke victims without being remotely controlled. Since moving to S.T.A.R Labs the project has become highly classified. I've contacted the Justice League and we are currently working with the US government to get to confidentiality lifted so I can look into it further."

"Any CCTV footage of the break-in?"

"The criminal remotely disabled the cameras and looped the footage for exactly 13 minutes – precisely the amount of time it took them to break into the vault and leave."

"Eye witness accounts?" I asked, becoming more concerned. The criminal we were dealing with obviously knew what they were doing.

"Snuck in through the ventilation shaft."

"Past Wayne Tech security?" I could hear the incredulity in my own voice.

"It would appear so. I'm having the head of the security department look over that as we speak."

"Am I coming back to Gotham to help?" I asked, barely managing to keep the hopefulness out of my voice.

"Not yet," Batman paused, "Your school has been informed that Bruce Wayne is holding a gala in two weeks that Dick Grayson is expected to attend and as such, you may need to be extracted from lessons without much notice for family business."

It was the best I could have hoped for, if the criminal struck again, I'd be back in Gotham fighting crime.

"And Robin, keep coms open all day. I don't like the way this looks."

"Sure thing," I said, flipping open my pager and setting it to loud. If it went off in class I'd just tell everyone I had to go back to Gotham to prepare for the gala.

"Don't be late," Batman said, his voice softening slightly as he disconnected the call.

I rushed to get dressed so as to not be late for breakfast. There wasn't a repeat of Gar and Victor's bizarre behavior, but even if there had been – I was too busy mulling over the crime in Gotham to pay much attention.

I didn't talk much at breakfast either, mostly dipping in and out of listening to conversation. From what I gathered, topics ranged from a debate about tofu to an argument about how Rachel never joined in with games. Garfield seemed particularly heated on this topic, suggesting game after game for Rachel to play with everyone before giving up with a murmured, "typical".

Everyone left early for their classes, leaving Rachel and I at the table. She had a new book with her, but didn't seem to be paying much attention to it since she was just staring blankly at the page.

"Problem?" I asked, shaking away thoughts of S.T.A.R Labs and nanobots.

"I don't really fit in," she said, pulling the sleeves of her school jumper over her hands, "I'm used to it, don't worry."

"What do you mean? You've got great friends. Who could wish for a friend better than me?" I asked attempting to be humorous. My hilarity seemed to fall on deaf ears however.

"They," Rachel paused, carefully weighing her words. "They try to understand, Kori probably gets it best because she's more different than the rest of them, but it's hard to understand… I mean, you must have heard Gar this morning."

"He just wants to spend time with you," I said, I wasn't cut out for being the emotionally supportive type. With the stoic Bruce as my guardian and limited contact with kids my own age I began to feel very out of my depth.

Rachel took a deep breath in, like she was trying to balance herself before speaking, "It isn't that. Didn't you hear what he said?" She paused and then, in a semi-flawless imitation of Gar's voice said, "C'mon Rae, its _creepy_ how you lock yourself up in your room all the time."

"He said that?" I didn't remember that, but then again, I hadn't been listening very closely to the conversation this morning.

"It isn't important," Rachel said. "I know I'm weird. I'm not _like_ you."

It sounded to me like the words had more meaning to them than their face value, but I was starting to learn that my new friends kept a lot of secrets.

"We should go, we'll be late," Rachel said after I didn't respond for a while.

As we stood up I turned away from the table to hear the sound of a glass break behind me. Rachel muttered a curse word.

"Did you knock a cup over?" I asked

"Yes," She answered a tad too quickly sounding nervous. She scooped the broken glass into her hands and dropped in onto her tray. "I do that sometimes, sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

As we walked to English, Rachel remained very quiet, and the silence was laden with what we had discussed at breakfast. Once seated in English I sent Garfield a quick text, figuring he'd like to know that he had upset Rachel. I imagined he was terrible at tact but had good intentions, especially given how hard he was crushing on her.

_You really messed up with R this morning. Creepy? Really? - Dick_

It was halfway through the lesson when my phone vibrated in my pocket. No surprise, the text was from Gar. I slid my phone out of my pocket and hid it under the desk so I could reply.

_I didnt mean tht, hoped it wld make her join in. she thniks shes alone but shes not. _

_You should probably tell her that then. –Dick_

At the end of class I had another message from Gar,

_Yh, ure right_

I put my phone away and checked my pager on the way to Russian to see that the crime reports in Gotham were all quiet, unfortunately for me. Morning lessons passed by with aching slowness, but thankfully I eventually found myself in the lunch queue. Kori was the first person to turn up, plate piled high with the customary pile of food that didn't match.

She was a little less cheerful than she had been yesterday, I gathered that Rachel's bad mood upset her greatly and she was missing sunlight, which struck me as odd because Moscow didn't tend to get lots of sunlight in the first place. I refrained from comment though, instead talking about hopes for the summer and sunnier weather.

When everyone else turned up, the awkwardness between Gar and Rachel was evident. Rachel was blocking herself off from the rest of the group by reading and sitting on the end of the table while Gar shot furtive glances at her every couple minutes. After about 10 minutes of this, I saw Victor shove Gar and nod his head at Rachel. That appeared to be all the encouragement Gar needed as he turned to Rachel and asked her to leave with him.

"You haven't finished eating." She said gesturing to his tray.

"Its fine, I just want to go for a really short walk, please?" Gar widened his eyes at her and clasped his arms in front of his chest.

"Since you're acting so strange… sure," Rachel said, confusion lacing her voice.

The two left, but didn't go very far. They stopped outside the doors to the lunch hall and started to talk. At this point, Kori, Vic and I had all turned our chairs so we could watch what was happening.

"Ten bucks says he messes up and she slaps him," Victor said after a while.

"I would not be so sure," Kori said, "Look, they appear to be doing the making up."

Kori was right; Gar and Rachel were hugging each other. Victor let out a low whistle, "Aw man, he's going to be talking about that for weeks."

Rachel and Gar ended their surprisingly long hug and turned around, not giving us enough time to drag our chairs around, making it fairly obvious that we had been watching them.

"Smooth," Rachel deadpanned as she slipped back into her seat, returning to her usual resigned self.

Gar was smiling like an idiot as he sat down, and shot a quick and incredibly unsubtle thumb up at Victor. It was as everyone was beginning to go back to their meals when my pager, as well as everyone else's cell phones went off. I snapped to attention.

"I have to go. Bruce wants me in Gotham for a thing." I said as I grabbed my tray and stood.

"Yeah, I have to go too. I forgot a project I needed to turn in," Victor said, downing the last of his food.

"Me too!" Gar stood too.

"I owe the library a book." Rachel stood up and walked away, Gar and Victor following her.

"I have to go…" Kori paused, "wash my hair. Bye friend Dick."

With that, I was left the only one at the table. Too preoccupied to question the bizarre behavior that had just occurred, I set off, making a mental note to find out what had happened with everyone else when I got back.

It took me only 6 minutes to get back to my room, get in uniform and locate the R-cycle. There was a 10-minute drive to the nearest entrance of the Bat cave during which my AI informed me of the current situation.

The attack was taking place in Metropolis and had similar characteristics to the attack in Gotham. Superman was currently off world, engaged in diplomatic talks with the Negus system and as a result, Metropolis was currently without hero. The Justice League was dispatching a team of metas to the scene of the crime. Livewire, a metahuman villain, was attacking the electricity plant in Metropolis and indiscriminately electrocuting people on sight. Batman had called me into the line of duty as he had strong suspicions the Metropilis City Bank was also at risk and wanted to remotely view security footage.

When I arrived at the cave, Batman was already at the central console with about 6 active screens.

"I need you to monitor Gotham reports, check for unusual CCTV footage at Metropolis City Bank and Gotham Central Bank."

"On it," I replied, sitting down and starting to type furiously. I had three screens active within minutes.

"Am I looking at any particular vaults?"

"Keep an eye on the Luther Corp vaults. They're holding technology similar to that of the Wayne Tech vault broken into yesterday."

"I've got it," I pulled up the Luther Corp vault cameras and began checking angles and feeds to check if footage was being looped over. "Who is the Justice League sending into Metropolis? I thought Clark would have left his city to you."

"New Team. They don't have a name yet. They're young, but very strong." Bruce paused, clicking on something and started again, "Clark knows I've had my hands full with Gotham and getting you into school, he left Metropolis to the League and police."

"I don't have to be going to school. That was your choice," I responded, indignant.

"You're not even 16 Dick, you can't do everything," Batman said, running a hand over his cowl.

"Oh, so you need to treat me as a child? I see. Because last time I checked, I've been doing this for years –"

My arguing was interrupted when, on the central screen monitoring Livewire, something was beginning to happen. Green orbs of energy hit Livewire's hands, knocking the branch of wiring out of them. The first hero on the scene was a green cheetah, which quickly shifted into a dinosaur, this was followed by a flying girl with orange skin and red hair, and lastly a raven came up from the ground and faded, depositing what appeared to be a man fit with cybernetics and a small girl in a hooded cape.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me! What the hell –" I started

**AN: I'm bad at cliffhangers I know. **

**Review?**


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